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January 26, 2006
What! You mean paper is not the most efficient way to do business?
There is an article at MediaPost entited 'Top MediaCom Buyer Gives Stations The eBiz, Demands Paperless Invoicing.' Essentially, it says that MediaCom's Anne Elkins wants to "shift completely away from paper invoicing."
"We believe that this is an absolute necessity for doing business now and in the future," she wrote, adding that e-invoicing saves time for both sides and cuts down on errors. Elkins, evp-director of local broadcast, is a member of an industry task force on e-business.
The TVB says about 1,000 stations and 15 major agencies are now sending invoices electronically.
I am sure that the author of this article got all the facts and quotes correct. But it does miss a major point of what is happening in agency/station eBusiness transactions. Namely, Donovan Data Systems has started to sign up many rep firms and station groups in a complete eBiz solution called MediaOcean. NBC's O&O's were the first to embrace this direction.
That electronic transaction and workflow solution covers so many more topics than invoicing alone and that is where the real action is at. It is like comparing a modern figher aircraft to one from decades ago. There really is no comparison.
It appears that some stations are signing up for MediaOcean because they sense that someday media buyers just might stop purchasing ad inventory that is more costly to process, thereby, creating more agency overhead costs. That is the same basic thrust of why paper invoices have to go, too.
Hint, hint: the agencies are competing on very slim margins and transactional efficiency is very important.
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